68 PREMIER GUITAR NOVEMBER 2009 www.premierguitar.com
ZACHARY R. FJESTAD
TRASH OR TREASURE
This is the first of a two-part article. We’ll discuss the Fender Princeton Reverb this month
and the Gibson ES-175D next. Both of these
pieces were in our office, so I was able to
inspect them personally. Some information in
this article cannot be seen in the picture(s).
Hey Zach,
I bought this Fender amp and Gibson guitar new in the late 1970s or early 1980s
and only played them a few times. A few
years later, I gave the guitar and amp to
my father, but he played them very little
as well. My father passed away last winter,
and I found these when I was cleaning out
his closets. I still don’t play, so I’d like to
sell them, and I’m curious as to exactly
what I have and how much they are worth.
Thanks!
Jim in Forest Lake, MN
Hey Jim,
I’m sorry to hear about your dad passing. It’s
a shame neither of you kept up with guitar
playing. The good news is that the guitar
and amp are in near-mint condition, because
they’ve spent most of their lives in a closet.
I inspected your amp thoroughly and did
some research on it. First of all, I don’t think
this amp was new when you purchased it.
Based on the serialization Greg Gagliano
compiled for the now defunct 20th Century
Guitar magazine, the serial number in your
amp of A268XX indicates it was produced in
1972. The two-letter date code stamped on
the tube chart was discontinued after 1969,
and there is no speaker date code, so aside
from taking the chassis apart to look for other
date codes, the serial number is the only dat-
ing feature we have.
While Fender produced the silverface
Princeton Reverb continuously from 1968
to 1981, they did implement some subtle
changes along the way that also help us date
it today. First, Fender used the grille cloth
on your Princeton from approximately 1970
to 1975. Before this, there was an aluminum
frame around it. After 1975, the grille cloth
color changed from silver and blue to silver
and orange. The Fender logo on the amp
lost its tail around 1974 and the model name
on the control panel used to read “Princeton
Reverb Amp” prior to circa 1971. This confirms what the serial number told us all along:
that the amp was built circa 1972.
This amp has 12–15W output, one 10" speaker, a seven-tube chassis (preamp: 1x7025,
2x12AX7, 1x12AT7; power: 2x6V6GT, and
a 5U4GB rectifier), a single channel, reverb,
tremolo, front silver control panel, two inputs,
six knobs (Volume, Treble, Bass, Reverb,
Tremolo Speed, and Tremolo Intensity), and
a footswitch jack (not included). It features
Fender’s trademark black Tolex covering, a
silver/blue grille cloth, and a black handle.
I plugged the amp in and played for quite a
while. I noticed that the tremolo wasn’t working, and after some research discovered that
the footswitch actually has to be plugged
into the vibrato pedal footswitch jack on
the back panel. A borrowed footswitch from
a silverface Super Reverb confirmed that
the tremolo worked just fine. Aside from
a burned out pilot light and one scratchy
potentiometer in the tone circuit, this amp
played and sounded just as it should. It
appears to be in near mint condition with all-original components, including the speaker.
There are extra tubes in the bottom of the
cabinet and the ones installed do not match,
so at least a few of them have been replaced.
I don’t want to say that you were fooled into
buying a new guitar amplifier in 1980, when
it’s actually a 1972, because I don’t know all
of the circumstances. It’s possible that this
amp sat in inventory for eight years, but I
would suspect they used it as a rental or
someone traded it in after seldom playing
it. Realistically, if the price was right and the
amp looked new when you bought it, does
it really matter when it was built? Besides, a
1972 Princeton Reverb is worth more today
than a 1980. The vintage Fender amp market
has softened a bit in the past two years, but
you can expect to get between $1,000 and
$1, 200 retail for this amplifier—of course,
wholesale price is going to be quite a bit
less! Truly, there are very few Fender tube
amplifiers that aren’t treasures.
Next month: A near-mint 1980 Gibson ES-175D!
Fender Princeton Reverb
Zachary R. Fjestad
Zachary is the author of the Blue Book of Acoustic
Guitars, Blue Book of Electric Guitars, and the Blue
Book of Guitar Amplifiers.
Questions can be submitted to:
Blue Book Publications
Attn: Guitar Trash or Treasure
8009 34th Ave. S. Ste #175
Minneapolis, MN 55425
800-877-4867
bluebookinc.com
guitars@bluebookinc.com
